We Are Only Immortal for a Limited Time…
“When the Sunflowers are All Done”, Aiken County, November 2023
Hello Friend,
As a landscape and nature photographer, I am very familiar with the whole “circle of life” thing. I enjoy the changes of the seasons of birth, growth, decline and death that I see throughout the year at the landscapes I visit frequently. Though, we instinctively know that what we see in winter is more a hibernation for a few months, and not outright death. Spring will come and start the cycle over again, phew. But do we really spend much time thinking about the ending for our loved ones or even our own?
I’ve actually been very fortunate that, even in my late 50’s now, I have not lost many people in my life. This year was the 20th anniversary of the passing of my father-in-law. I did recently lose both my parents in 2024, and they both lived into their early 90’s. Because of this, you might think I could ignore it and not think about death or dying very much, but actually I do. Not in a morbid way, but just the common questions of when might it happen and what will I have to show for my life when it comes to an end.
I am often conflicted with the dueling ideas that life is short, but it can also be seen that 70-90 years can be pretty long. Either way, I do think life is also very fragile. Like most of you, I have known people that are just living their lives when an accident or a sudden diagnosis comes along to change everything. I see this a lot through my wife’s work in a local hospital. There she has patents who range in age from early 20’s into their 90’s. And of course, the most heartbreaking ones are the younger people with life-threatening illnesses or accidents that change the trajectory of their lives.
“Kathy’s Sunflower” Hillsborough, NC, July 2023
This may seem like an odd topic for a blog on creativity, but this has grown out of an interest in the Stoic ideas of Memento Mori and that everything is ephemeral. Memento Mori means to meditate on your mortality, and more literally “Remember you must die”. Or if you are a “Game of Thrones” fan, you’ve likely heard "Valar Morghulis" or “All men must die”. (Though, this one is delivered by a bringer of death, so this has a slightly more sinister or fatalistic feel to it.) What the Stoics and other traditions that had a similar practice were ultimately getting at was, don’t be wasteful of your life, because it could change or end at any moment.
Death will happen to all of us; whether we like it or not. So, what are we doing in the mean time? When I do think of this, I get the feeling I am not out photographing as much as I would like. And when I am out shooting, I am not producing images that will have a lasting impact. Or that I am missing getting some amazing image, but that I’m working or doing something else. Then I stop myself and question, does it matter one way or the other? If I am having a nice evening with my wife, should I rush off somewhere, anywhere, to look for a nice sunset photo? Or is it better I continue to have an enjoyable evening with my wife? And even when I might be fortunate enough to create a stellar image, how long will it be around – just a few moments on Instagram? Once I am gone, who really will be looking at my work anyway?
These questions can lead down two paths. One, nothing matters and why do anything? Or two, what’s really holding me back from doing those things that I want to do, the way I want to do them? In the first, we can just be a blob and do nothing. Have no interactions in our lives and not move from just the few feet around us. Or we can continue on with the life we want to lead – or just as importantly, get started on the one we want.
I know we all hope we are remembered fondly when we are gone, but even while we are alive, we can’t control what other people think and say about us – let alone if they will remember us at all.
“Emerging”, Aiken County, SC, June 2025
If we do think that others will not really remember us, doesn’t that give us the freedom to try something we might not have otherwise? To start that project or new adventure we have been putting off for another day? If we are not sure how much time is left, or what state we are going to be in when we “finally have the time”, what priorities are so important that they are keeping us from doing things the way we want to do it? Or releasing our work into the world how we see best – not what others tell us is best?
Like so many of us, I get working on something, and feel it’s never quite right and ready to be released. I want it to be just right, so it will be memorable. Then I get a hold of myself, and realize, I barely remember what I posted last week, why should anyone else? And, as I have written about before, deadlines are a really good way to force myself to release something when it’s about as good as it can be. Not perfect, just the best it can be at that moment, and move on.
I do hope to some extent that what I am doing overall will leave some type of “legacy” that people will remember me by. And who’s to say that what I write and say and photograph won’t get misinterpreted now, let alone after I’m gone? Though, as the stoics remind me once again, after I’m gone, I won’t be around to defend myself or enjoy my posthumous accolades – even if I am remembered. Heck, I’m just one guy in a small town in the Southern US in the early twenty-first century on this planet.
“Worn Out by it All”, Aiken, SC, June 2026
To emphasize this point that I’m just one of billions and billions, I recently heard Jason Bradley of “Wild Eye” Magazine talk about something that really brings this home to me. He said when he gives workshops to younger landscape photographers, he asks them if they have heard of Ansel Adams and seen his work. He is floored when he gets back blank stares and almost no response. Now, these are not just random people on the street; these are people who consider themselves landscape photographers. And they have not heard of Ansel Adams? The guy who helped promote and elevate landscape photography for all of us. That almost seems apocryphal, but it’s true. Even one of the greats of the modern landscape is slowly disappearing from memory in a field he helped popularize.
This leads to one of the other Stoic ideas that it’s all ephemeral – nothing lasts forever.
As Marcus Aurelius wrote in his “Meditations”: “Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever: Where is all that now? Smoke, dust, legend…or not even a legend. Think of all the examples. And how trivial the things we want so passionately are.”
We can produce the most amazing works; we can gain praise and awards. And it’s not long before we and our audience start asking “Great. So, what’s next?” If nothing we create will really last, if it all might be gone so soon, what does it matter? Actually, the present moment matters. What you are working on right now matters. Who you are with and who you want to be matters.
Thank you and keep creating what you do.
Patrick Krohn
July 2026
P.S. I did want to share a little about this week’s title inspiration. It comes from the chorus of the Rush song “Dreamline”.
“We are young
Wandering the face of the earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal
For a limited time”
If you would like to learn more about the Stoics, I have been getting ideas and inspiration from Ryan Holiday, and his “Daily Stoic”.
“Sunflower Rejoicing in Circles of Light” Aiken, SC, June 2026
As one present moment moves into the next present moment, we are always allowed to make changes, and be someone different, something more. As I wrote about in my “Why I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions”, we don’t need to wait for a magical date to help us make changes in our lives, we can decide to do it in this current moment.
Epictetus told his students what he thought was one of the “supreme of human evils” was not death, but the fear of death. As he wrote: “discipline yourself against such fear, direct all your thinking, exercises, and reading this way — and you will know the only path to human freedom.”
Again, these could be considered dark and depressing thoughts, or they can be the thoughts that help free us to make the creative and life-affirming decisions that make our life and the lives of those around us worthwhile.
Yes, when we are gone, almost no one will think or talk about us, though I’m sure we will all have had some impact on the world around us. It might be as small as the positive ripples we cause by sharing our creations and stories with the world. Maybe for those close, or even far away, we can inspire others to push themselves forward in their lives that little more, because, even if our creations might be forgotten in time, they saw us pushing those creations forward. And maybe that is a different “circle of life” — from inspiration to creation to inspiration again — we can all be a part of right now.